As many of you know I'm branching out into the depower side to mix things up a bit. I have recently purchased 2 depower foils from the FS section. I finally had a chance today to fly the Sabre 2 9.5M I bought from Cheddarhead for the first time.

Winds were not anything special, just enough that the kite would fly but unfortunately a little swirly. I wanted my first experience of this kite to be in winds that couldn't really hurt me. I've seen videos of what this kite can do with freestyle pilots so at 125lbs, caution was in order.

Setup was easy. As far as I know I had everything rigged properly. Launching was easy, steering was very slow due to the winds being on the mild side. I did let the kite over fly my head a few times but that was just me not keeping the kite moving across the window enough I suppose. The only real issue I had was that I really didn't quite know how to do a reverse launch and I caught myself not relying on my harness enough and muscling the bar because I'm used to the pull on my arms from my FB's. The only other thing I realized is that I should have let the depower strap out the whole way since the winds were barely enough to keep the kite up most of the time. Not a bad outing though for my first time with this kite but next time out I do want more wind, and wind that isn't changing direction as much.

Glad to hear you had a good flight. Starting slow is never a bad thing.

If your area is anything like mine light wind almost always equals variable direction.

Good to here you are expanding your horizons !

Read over the My access won't fly thread that was up recently. It will explain a few things.

1st. Pulling on the bar will stall the kite. To fly in low winds you must keep front line tension to speed the kite through the window = bar OUT. You pull in a bit as you approach the edge to avoid overfly + to influence turns.

2nd. You want to depower the kite to about 80% in for low winds . Sounds crazy but again you need front line tension or you will stall any speed you get on the kite . Speed = power.

Depower is a confusing term. It makes sense when in motion and in rated winds but goes out the window static flying in low winds.

What you want to do is speed the kite through the power zone with front line input / bar out. Pull in a bit at the edge to turn then back on the front lines to speed it up again.

I launch with about 80% trim and then trim out if I am able to do so without stalling the kite.

So what you're saying is you are ready to sell...

Are you going to join us in WildWood? Love to talk more about this as we both love the FB's, but I still want x1 de-power for skiing.

Hee hee. Not ready to sell, but definitely not ready to buy anymore kites! I hear ya though about finding a depower snow kite. What attracted me to the Sabre 2 was that as a foil it has similar characteristics to what I'm already used to, it eats gusts, and the 9.5 covers a pretty large wind range. Since you will actually have an opportunity to get a kite out on the snow if I were you I'd be all over finding a Gin Yeti in a similar size, I was just too cheap to buy newer kit. I like the Sabre though I'm just no where near ready to get launched into orbit so I have to be careful with a 9.5. :wink2:

I wish I could get up to Wildwood, it sure would help my buggy and depower learning curve. I just don't know if this year will work yet...

And when you are ready to sell... call me up!

Oh man. Yeah, I'm sorry the Sabre couldn't head north. To be honest I never thought it would end up in my hands, just lucked out. You will def have right of first refusal for sure.

Congrats on the maiden voyage!!!!
:bigok:

Bladerunner's advice on setting up for light winds with a depower kite is spot on. But with the trim strap pulled in to lower the angle of attack of the kite (making it faster), it makes it harder to reverse launch. The trailing edge is going to be leaning AWAY from you when kite is nose down on the ground, when you actually want it leaning toward you.

First thing to do is pull bar TOWARD you to see if it will reverse launch. If not you have two options: 1) let out the trim strap and see if it will reverse launch with bar pulled toward you. If you do that, wou will have to trim back in right away after the kite reverse launches and turns over; or 2) Pull the rear lines in from the leaders by hand, letting the bar go. Work the kite over and turn it with the rear leaders, then let them go and grab the bar when the kite is upright. I prefer method 2, because it leaves the trim strap alone.

What is your other depower kite? A Vio VR from Windzup?

krumly

Quote:

Originally posted by krumly First thing to do is push the bar away from you as far as possible to see if it will reverse launch... krumly

???

Wouldn't it be more prone launch (reverse) as you pull the bar towards you...?

Doh! Totally right pongnut - got that backwards. If pulling bar towards you isn't enough, you can grab the rear leader lines directly. Edited my previous post.

krumly

Yup, with reverse launch in lower winds I reach up and grab a big length of rear lines. Once it has lifted I let one go to turn it.

Ya, I figured this out yesterday on my second time out. Worked like a charm. The problem was I ended up going from one extreme to the other conditions-wise. Yesterday I flew the Sabre 2 for a short time in 16 gusting 26mph winds. Yes, I did get boosted, yes I was able to reverse launch, and yes I was able to shut it down before I either got hurt or found out what Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz must have felt like...thankfully!

vids or it didn't happen

sooo are you ready to sell this wing? My dream kite

I played around with depower down in seaside last weekend for the first time in a long while. It took me a bit to even start to figure the thing out. With some "gentle" encouragement from the peanut gallery it started to click. The advice above is spot on, you use the trim for the power you are wanting to make, too much and the kite will want to backstall. When you need extra power or need to turn the kite sharply you pull in. I was sort of expecting to be holding the bar in where you want it, but it ends up in a rhythmic motion, in, turn, out, let it run. Pulling in will also help keep the kite from overflying if flying static. This helped a fair bit when launching the kite when it would race up the middle of the window.

Don't give up on it, last weekend ended up being one of the best sessions I've had in the last 10 years. A depower even managed to follow me home.